1. Related Applications
There are no applications related hereto heretofore filed in this or any foreign country.
2. Field of Invention
My invention relates generally to insect traps and more particularly to such traps that selectively entrap wasps.
3. Description of the Prior Art
The term `wasp` is a generic name applied to insects of the order Hyminopteran that includes particularly hornets and yellow-jackets. The members of the Order are distinguished from bees in that they are carnivorous or parasitic. In all member species the female and worker populations have stingers that can produce a formidable wound and painful physiological reaction in animals. Since the dawning of recorded history and undoubtedly long before, man has had an ongoing battle with many of the more common species of this order of insects and by reason thereof many and various devices and processes have evolved for their control and destruction. The instant invention adds a new and novel member to this class of device to selectively entrap many species of wasps, aid their demise thereafter and contain bodies for subsequent disposal.
In so doing my trap differs from known insect traps in that its structure and function are particularly adapted and necessarily related to the psychology and physiology of wasps with the aid of modern materials. Wasps, in general, have primal anti-gravitational and positive light responses. That is, they tend to fly in an upward direction and to fly toward a light source. Both of these reactions become more pronounced when a wasp encounters stressful situations such as in attempting to escape entrapment or in anxiety situations such as when seeking an attractant. Wasps also appear to have color preferences and some colors seem to be optical attractants for them. They appear to be particularly attracted to a bright yellow color and this color seems somewhat selective to wasps. Certain odoriferous substances also appear to be olfactory attractants for wasps and some such substances appear to be quite specific as attractants only to the wasp families. It has long been known that normal butyl benzoate is such a selective attractant and pentyl pentanoate and dimethyl benzyl carbinyl acetate have both been suggested as such atractants, though they do not appear to be so well known nor specific as such.
My invention is adapted particularly to make use of the recited psychology, or physiology as the case may be, of wasps in selectively catching and killing them. I provide a vertically elongate trap with the top defining a screened opening and the bottom a plurality of entrance orifices to cooperatively allow airflow in a vertical direction through the trap to cause the dissemination of a volatile olfactory attractant contained therein. Most traps for flying insects heretofore known have been of a bottle-type construction with only a single entry orifice or plural orifices defined so as to prevent the free flow of air through the trap apparently with the thought of more fully containing the attractants used therewith to provide a longer life for them.
The top and bottom portions of my trap are formed of an opaque yellow colored material to act as an optical attractant for wasps in the environs of the trap. The body portion of the trap is formed of a transparent plastic. This body also acts somewhat as an attractant for wasps because they see other members of their species inside the trap, and though the bulk of wasp species are solitary rather than social, a wasp outside the trap still wants to enter because apparently it believes that there is food or some similar attractant where others of the species congregate. The transparent trap body serves a further purpose attracting wasps into the trap as it provides light above the entrance orifices defined in the opaque bottom which tends to cause an entering wasp to move upwardly toward the light source by reason of its innate psychology. The transparent body also allows entry of heat rays and tends to provide a `greenhouse` effect to increase temperature within the entrapment chamber to thereby speed the demise of insects therein.
The bottom element of my trap provides plural entrance orifices defined in an undercut portion immediately above the trap bottom. A perch is provided at the orifice to allow a wasp to rest there and make entry through the orifice easier by crawling if desired. The bottom element of the trap is opaque so the entrance orifices will be relatively darker and there will be more light thereabove which tends to cause the wasp to enter through an entryway. The entryways cooperate with the orifice in the top element and internal trap structure to allow relatively free passge of air through the trap so that a volatile attractant passes out of the entryways and is most strongly concentrated therein. This again causes a wasp to approach the trap and to enter to attempt to gain access to the source of the attractant.
A truncated cone is provided inwardly of the entrance orifices and between them and the internal chamber of the trap. The lower portion of this cone is solid and opaque to enhance the darkness about the entry orifices and to concentrate light at the upper screen portion to attract wasps to that area. The cone has relatively steep smooth sides to discourage or prevent wasps from alighting thereon to thusly require continued exertion in flying which hastens their demise once in the entrapment chamber.
My invention is distinguished from prior flying insect traps individually or in combination by reason of the aforesaid structural features which necessarily perform the functions indicated and my invention is novel over the known art by reason thereof.